In a number of popular board games, markers are moved about on a board marked with spaces corresponding to allowable marker positions. The most well known of these games is “checkers,” in which each of two players has a set of pieces initially arranged in a predetermined starting pattern on a board having 64 squares in an 8×8 pattern. The players take turns moving markers diagonally, jumping and “taking” each other's pieces. There are numerous variations, including “Chinese checkers,” in which the allowable marker positions are arranged in a “Star of David” pattern.
Another board game, which is in the nature of a puzzle, designed for a single player, is the familiar “golf tee puzzle,” in which fourteen golf tees are placed in fourteen of fifteen holes in a triangular array on a board. The player can jump and remove any piece if there is an empty hole on the opposite side, and tries to remove as many tees as possible.
While the games were originally designed as board games, and are still played that way, they are also played by computer. Two opposing checkers players, for example, can play against each other while at different locations through an electronic communications network, e.g., the Internet, using personal computers programmed with suitable game software. Alternatively, a single player can play against a computer, which can be the player's own computer, or a suitably programmed server at a remote location. In a similar manner, a single player can play the golf tee puzzle using software on his or her own computer, or by remote access to a suitably programmed server.